do nothing

why boredom might be the most powerful space you have

I’m writing this as I wait to board my flight to Boston. Airports always make me feel a little more alive, a little more observant. Maybe it’s the fluorescent lights, the hum of rolling suitcases, or the way time feels suspended between where you’ve been and where you’re going.

What always stays with me is how every single person here is in the middle of a story. Someone is leaving someone. Someone is going back to something. Someone is heading toward a brand-new life, someone is saying goodbye to one.

It’s sonder in real time—the realization that each stranger passing by has a life as vivid and layered as our own.

And then, of course, once you board, there’s the stillness of being in the air. No errands to run, no tasks you can immediately cross off, no way to escape the seatbelt and the clouds. Which brings me to something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: boredom.

The Perfect Use of Boredom

You need to be bored.

I know, it sounds ridiculous. We’ve been trained to see boredom as wasted time. We fill every pause. Anything to avoid that itchy feeling of “nothing to do.” But here’s the truth: boredom isn’t wasted time. It’s a privilege.

The Science of Boredom

Boredom isn’t just the absence of stimulation. It’s a mental doorway.

When you’re not occupied, your brain switches into something called the default mode network: the set of brain structures that activates when you aren’t focused on a task. It’s tied to creativity, long-term planning, and self-reflection.

In other words: when you let yourself be bored, your brain finally has space to ask the bigger questions you usually push aside.

Dan Gilbert, a psychologist at Harvard, once ran a study where participants had to sit in a room for 15 minutes doing absolutely nothing. No phone, no books. Just them and their thoughts. The only object in the room was a button that delivered a painful electric shock. Most people ended up shocking themselves rather than sitting alone in silence.

That’s how uncomfortable boredom feels for us. But that’s also why it matters! Because when you sit with it—on a plane, on a walk, staring out a window—you don’t just drift into random daydreams. You stumble into meaning, values, direction. You face the truths that don’t usually fit into your calendar.

Time, Space, and Motion

Airports and flights make you realize how flexible time and space really are. You can wake up in Madrid, have lunch in Boston, and fall asleep in New York—all in the same day. You can step off a plane into snow when you left sunshine behind.

That bending of time and geography mirrors what boredom gives us: the ability to stretch beyond the linear, beyond the checklist. It’s where imagination begins.

And isn’t that the beauty of motion? We’re always departing something, arriving at something else—whether physically or emotionally. To embrace boredom in those in-between moments is to give yourself permission to pause, reflect, and grow.

The Reframe

Instead of running from boredom, treat it like a resource. Schedule it, even.

Take a walk without headphones. Let your thoughts catch up to you.

Sit on a bench. No book, no phone. Just you and the rhythm of the world passing by.

So as I sit here waiting for my flight—and soon to be suspended in that weird, weightless pocket of air and time—I’m reminding myself that boredom isn’t the enemy. It’s an opening. It means you’re not in crisis. It means your brain is free to wander, wonder, and create.

Next time you find yourself restless, don’t rush to silence it. Let yourself be bored. You might be surprised at what your brain has been waiting to tell you.

Mwah,

Silvia

PS. I dare you: put your phone down for 5 minutes after reading this. Sit still. Do absolutely nothing. It’ll feel weird at first, but I promise, your mind will thank you.